ill  it  II  III! 


EXCHANGE 


THE  INDUCTIVE 

DETERMINATION  OF  EDUCATIONAL 
METHOD 


THE 

INDUCTIVE  DETERMINATION 
OF  EDUCATIONAL  METHOD 


The  Standardization  and  Application  of  Efficiency  Tests  to  Any  of 

the  Numerous  Factors  of  Educational  Method  Which  Now 

Dominate  Class-Room  Teaching  Processes  or 

Which  May  Be  Made  to  Contribute  to 

Their  Greater  Efficiency 

BY 

AMBROSE  L  SUHRIE 

Professor  of  Pedagogy ',  State  Normal  School,   West  Chester,  Pennsylvania 

and 

Special  Lecturer  in  Educational  Research  in  the  Summer  School  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania 


INTRODUCTION  BY 

A.  DUNCAN  YOCUM 

Professor  of  Educational  Research  and  Practice,   University  of  Pennsylvania, 


BALTIMORE,  MD. 

WARWICK  &  YORK,  Inc. 

1915 


Copyright,  1915, 
By  WARWICK  &  YORK,  Inc. 


To 

LINCOLN  HULLEY,  PH.D.,  LITT.D.,  LL.D. 

President  John  B.  Stetson  University 

EDUCATOR 

Friend  and  Inspirer  of  Youth 


PREFACE 

As  a  member  of  a  seminar  in  Education  working 
for  some  time  under  the  direction  of  Professor 
Yocum  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  in  the  par- 
ticular field  of  research  treated  in  this  monograph 
the  writer  was  much  impressed  with  the  need  of  a 
brief  treatise  clearly  setting  forth,  in  lieu  of  a  series 
of  introductory  lectures,  some  of  the  objects  which 
might  be  pursued  and  some  of  the  methods  which 
might  be  followed  by  similar  groups  of  collaborating 
scientists  in  the  field  of  educational  methods. 

It  is  hoped  that  this  specific  purpose  may  be 
served  by  Professor  Yocum 's  brief  introduction  to 
this  study  and  by  my  own  more  fully-developed  out- 
lines. 

The  complete  manuscripts  of  my  more  extended 
study  in  this  field  will  hereafter  be  available  to  stu- 
dents in  the  library  of  the  School  of  Education  at 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia. 


AMBEOSE  L.  SUHRIE. 


State  Normal  School, 
West  Chester, 
Pennsylvania, 
September  1,  1914. 


INTRODUCTION 
By  A.  DUNCAN  YOCUM 

University  of  Pennsylvania 


INTRODUCTION 

Just  as  surely  as  Psychology  has  been  transformed 
from  a  philosophy  to  a  science,  Education  is  work- 
ing over  from  a  deductive  to  an  inductive  basis.  In 
the  field  of  administration  the  change  has  been  so 
marked  that  most  educational  thinkers  no  longer 
test  a  school  system  through  the  extent  of  its  agree- 
ment with  some  theoretical  scheme,  but  rather 
through  the  presence  or  absence  of  those  features 
which  research  finds  common  to  all  successful  sys- 
tems. To  be  sure,  in  most  efficiency  tests  there  has 
not  been  sharp  distinction  between  favorable  condi- 
tions, essential  factors,  and  ultimate  facts,  but,  that 
efficiency  is  being  measured  in  more  or  less  scientific 
fashion,  median  and  graph  bear  eloquent  testimony. 

The  science  of  school  administration,  however, 
cannot  be  adequately  built  up  until  research  and 
experimentation  in  the  field  of  instruction,  both  as 
distinct  from  school  supervision  and  management 
and  as  a  part  of  it,  has  developed  a  science  which  is 
determining  for  both  course  of  study  and  methods  of 
teaching. 

Dr.  Suhrie's  thesis,  of  which  the  present  mono- 
graph is  the  introductory  part,  is  a  highly  useful 
contribution  to  this  latter  phase  of  investigation. 
Most  experiments  in  methods  of  teaching  the  various 

5 


6'     '  '  *  tHjS  f  INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 


school  subjects  have  been  either  so  loosely  conducted 
or  imperfectly  reported  that  their  results  are  not 
scientifically  valid.  While  Dr.  Suhrie  Js  mode  of  pro- 
cedure need  not  be  precisely  followed,  none  of  the 
steps  which  he  has  enumerated  can  be  safely  omitted 
if  the  results  of  investigation  are  to  win  universal 
acceptance  and  to  dominate  the  processes  of  instruc- 
tion with  a  sterner  compulsion  than  that  of  tradition 
or  authority. 

In  emphasizing  mode  of  procedure,  however,  one 
thing  must  be  held  clearly  in  mind.  Mode  of  pro- 
cedure is  merely  a  means  to  an  end.  No  precautions 
to  ensure  unvarying  conditions  or  statistical  treat- 
ment of  results  can  make  conclusions  educationally 
valuable  if  the  thing  tested  is  not  an  actual  factor 
in  some  specific  process  of  instruction,  and  if  more 
than  one  factor  is  varied  in  the  experiment.  For 
example,  demonstration  of  the  fact  that  the  pupils  in 
a  particular  school  grade  are  predominantly  eye- 
minded  does  not  prove  that  the  spelling  lesson  should 
be  mainly  visual,  but  merely  points  the  way  to  the 
determination  of  the  effect  of  visual  presentation 
upon  the  memorizing  of  particular  lists  of  words. 
Such  a  determination  might  prove  it  to  be  effective 
for  polysyllables  or  words  largely  unphonetic  with- 
out being  helpful  to  phonetic  monosyllables,  or  eco- 
nomical in  memorizing,  but  fatal  to  comprehension 
or  to  the  development  of  ear-mindedness  and  the 
power  of  carrying  over  a  particular  sequence  of  let- 
ters to  all  parts  of  words  which  have  a  corresponding 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  7 

sound.  That  is,  experimentation  must  be  preceded 
by  analysis  which  limits  the  test  not  only  to  a  par- 
ticular factor  in  method,  but  to  a  particular  sort  of 
material  and  a  particular  kind  of  efficiency.  On  the 
other  hand,  however  specific  the  factor,  material, 
and  efficiency  that  are  tested  for  may  be,  if  more  than 
one  factor  is  varied,  the  result  is  inconclusive.  A 
test  to  determine  the  effect  of  visual  repetition  in 
the  memorizing  of  particular  sorts  of  spelling  words 
is  valueless  if  the  visual  presentation  follows  an 
oral  one  without  compensation  being  sought  for  the 
additional  repetitions  involved.  Any  gain  in  effi- 
ciency may  have  resulted  as  certainly  from  the  addi- 
tional repetition  of  the  oral  spelling  as  from  the 
additional  visual  repetition.  The  problem  of  method 
is  not  the  comparative  efficiency  of  Miss  So-and-So's 
system  of  teaching  reading  with  that  used  in  some 
other  series  of  textbooks.  All  methods  of  teaching 
the  same  material,  or  developing  the  same  sort  of 
efficiency,  must  have  most  factors  in  common;  but 
every  little  shift  of  the  kaleidoscope  puts  them  in 
new  combination  and  creates  a  new  "method"  to 
compare  with  the  old.  The  true  problem  of  method 
is  the  determination  of  the  relative  efficiency  of  each 
specific  factor,  whether  it  is  the  unique  feature  of 
some  one  method  or  a  common  factor  to  all. 

Once  determine,  for  example,  the  kind  of  grouping 
by  similarity  that  is  most  effective  for  each  sort  of 
geographical  subject-matter,  with  a  view  to  each 
kind  of  geographical  efficiency,  and  range  all  other 


8  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

forms  of  grouping  in  the  order  of  their  relative  effi- 
ciency; perform  the  same  task  for  all  other  factors, 
such  as  form  of  presentation,  interval  in  repetition 
and  gradation,  and  the  problem  of  efficient  geograph- 
ical instruction  is  solved.  The  most  effective  method 
for  the  majority  of  pupils  can  then  result  from  put-- 
ting togther  into  one  combination  all  of  the  relatively 
more  effective  factors  that  are  not  mutually  exclu- 
sive ;  the  value  of  any  particular  method  or  textbook 
can  be  determined  by  the  presence  or  absence  of 
such  factors ;  and  the  method  adapted  to  a  particular 
individual  can  be  chosen  through  the  use  of  the  most 
effective  factors  which  his  personality  does  not  ren- 
der inoperative. 

Complex  as  this  task  appears  when  one  considers 
the  multiplicity  of  subjects  and  variety  of  subject- 
matter,  and  the  numerous  kinds  of  efficiency  and 
factors  in  method,  it  is  simple  when  compared  with 
the  formulation  and  combinations  of  such  a  science 
as  organic  chemistry.  If  I  can  judge  from  the  lim- 
ited response  to  inquiries  I  have  recently  made 
through  various  professional  periodicals,  and  con- 
stant effort  to  gather  together  reports  on  experi- 
ments in  this  field,  little  has  as  yet  been  accom- 
plished. Such  a  system  of  reports  as  has  been 
planned  by  the  Society  of  College  Teachers  of  Edu- 
cation, the  work  of  such  committees  as  that  recently 
appointed  by  the  Council  of  Teachers  of  English, 
and,  above  all,  the  multiplication  of  monographs 
such  as  this,  will  sooner  or  later  have  the  effect  of 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  9 

creating  an  adequate  body  of  expert  educational 
workers  for  this  field  of  service  in  which  Dr.  Suhrie 
and  other  members  of  my  Seminar  have  been  doing 
pioneer  work.  A.  DUNCAN  YOCUM. 


THE  INDUCTIVE 

DETERMINATION  OF  EDUCATIONAL 
METHOD 


The  Inductive  Determination  of  Educational  Method 


OUTLINE 
I.    Introduction. 
II.    The  Scientific  Educational  Society. 

III.  The  University  Seminar  in  Educational  Re- 
search. 

1.  General  conditions  of  membership. 

2.  Types  of  specialists  needed. 

3.  Meetings  for  round-table  discussion. 

4.  Division  of  labor. 

5.  Field  of  investigation. 

IV.  The  Work  of  Scientific  Experimentation  in 

Educational  Method. 

V.  Outline  of  Considerations  and  Suggestions  for 
Inductive  Determination  of  Educa- 
tional Method  and  for  Effective  use  of 
Conclusions. 

1.  Formulation    of   problem   for    experi- 

mentation. 

2.  Selection    of    laboratory    for    experi- 

mentation. 

3.  Choice  of  conductor  of  experiment. 

13 


14  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

4.  Development  of  procedure  for  experi- 

ment. 

5.  Conducting  of  experiment. 

6.  Beview  of  experiment  and  preliminary 

report. 

7.  Formal  report  and  publication. 

VI.    Development  of  Outline. 

(In  which  sections  designated  a,  b,  and  c 
correspond  in  each  case  to  the  two  or  three 
subdivisions  under  each  of  the  seven  su- 
bordinate headings  in  outline  V  above.) 


I.    INTRODUCTION 

Preliminary  to  a  consideration  of  the  question  of 
procedure  in  the  inductive  determination  of  educa- 
tional method,  it  may  be  well,  for  reasons  which  are 
practical  rather  than  theoretical,  to  consider  the 
agencies  through  which  educational  scientists  may, 
by  combining  their  efforts,  best  attain  to  useful 
scientific  achievement. 

j 

II.     THE  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATIONAL  SOCIETY 

Schleiermacher  thinks  that  in  the  very  need  of 
science  there  is  need  of  the  scientific  society. 
Whether  or  not  this  be  true  of  science  in  general,  it 
is  obviously  true  of  the  need  which  is  at  once  sug- 
gested by  any  constructive  efforts  to  develop  a 
science  of  education  on  an  inductive  basis.  Any  real 
achievement  in  the  domain  of  scientific  educational 
method  must  come  as  the  result  of  wide  collabora- 
tion— this  because  of  the  complex  character  of  all  its 
inter-relationships  and  the  number  of  contributing 
sciences  which  furnish  much  of  the  data,  and  because 
of  the  traditional  and  unscientific  attitude  of  many 
otherwise  scientific  men  toward  this  particular 
branch  of  human  interest. 

Conradi  has  summarized  the  remarkable  contribu- 
tions to  the  advance  of  experimental  science  (see 
article  under  title  "  Learned  Societies  and  Academies 

15 


16  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

of  Early  Times ' '  in  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  XII) , 
in  many  lines  of  human  interest,  made  by  the  collabo- 
rative efforts  of  the  great  independent  thinkers  who 
formed  the  learned  societies  of  ancient  times.  His 
conclusions,  after  an  extended  study  of  the  subject, 
are  that  these  men  and  their  scholastic  successors 
on  down  through  the  Middle  Ages,  when  free  think- 
ing was  proscribed,  accomplished  more  by  co-opera- 
tion and  collaboration  as  organized  bodies  of  work- 
ers, often  in  secret  research,  than  all  other  agencies 
combined,  to  advance  experimental  methods  of  in- 
vestigation, to  keep  the  idea  of  finality  out  of  science, 
and  to  develop  the  concept  that  scientific  accuracy 
is  always  relative  and  never,  not  even  in  the  domain 
of  the  pure  sciences,  absolute. 

The  pessimistic  philosophy  of  the  East,  which 
virtually  denied  the  improvability  of  the  human  race 
by  the  processes  of  education,  dominated  the  Chris- 
tian world  for  long  centuries  after  the  fall  of  the 
Koman  Empire.  Men  thought  of  education  as  a  con- 
serving art;  they  did  not  see  in  it  a  dynamic  force 
for  human  betterment.  Little  wonder,  then,  that 
the  learned  societies  should  have  almost  completely 
neglected  the  study  of  educational  data  and  that 
these  data  should  constitute  the  latest  considerable 
body  of  facts  of  intensely  human  interest  to  take  on 
even  the  semblance  of  scientific  form. 

It  is  one  of  the  hopeful  signs  of  the  times  that 
scientific  educational  societies  are  becoming  more 
numerous  and  selective,  and  that  many  types  of  or- 


OF   EDUCATIONAL    METHOD  17 

ganization  have  in  recent  years  come  into  existence, 
and  that  so  many  objects,  both  general  and  special, 
are  pursued  (see  Alexander's  volume  on  " Teachers' 
Voluntary  Associations,"  Teachers'  College,  New 
York).  These  societies,  by  whatever  names  they 
may  be  known,  which  include  among  their  mem- 
bership groups  of  individual  workers  absolutely 
willing  to  resubmit  to  scientific  test  all  the  premises 
upon  which  contemporary  educational  theory  and 
practice  rest,  can  do,  and,  it  is  believed  are  doing, 
more  than  any  other  equal  number  of  independent 
workers  to  overthrow  the  rule  of  the  dogmatists, 
still  enthroned  in  our  educational  system,  whose 
mere  opinion,  resting  on  no  basis  of  scientific  fact, 
often  receives  wide  acceptance  because  of  successful 
administrative  achievement  or  forceful  and  dominat- 
ing personality. 

Unfortunately,  however,  eligibility  for  member- 
ship in  these  societies  is  not,  in  most  cases,  clearly 
determined  on  the  basis  of  scientific  training  for  any 
specific  function  to  be  performed  in  a  work  of  col- 
laboration. Many  of  these  organizations  are  very 
large  and  their  membership  composed,  for  the  most 
part,  of  the  relatively  untrained.  The  chief  services 
which  such  societies  can  render  must,  for  obvious 
reasons,  be  to  develop  a  scientific  attitude  of  mind 
toward  the  investigation  of  educational  problems 
and  to  disseminate  widely  a  knowledge  of  the  valid 
results  of  experimentation  carried  on  by  smaller 
bodies  of  more  expert  educational  scientists.  To 


18  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

push  out  the  boundaries  of  scientific  exploration  in 
the  domain  of  educational  interest  is  the  work  of 
those  who  have  had  broad  general  training  and  some 
practical  experience  in  educational  research  and  ex- 
perimentation, and  who  are  organized  in  groups  of 
workable  size. 

III.     THE  UNIVERSITY  SEMINAR  IN  EDUCATIONAL 
EESEARCH 

It  is  believed  that  if  any  substantial,  not  to  say 
rapid,  progress  is  to  be  made  in  the  inductive  de- 
termination of  the  numerous  factors  in  educational 
method,  in  the  evaluation  of  their  relative  impor- 
tance, and  in  the  co-ordination  of  all  these  results 
into  well-organized  educational  principles,  capable 
of  specific  application  to  the  procedures  of  class- 
room teaching,  it  will  probably  come  chiefly  through 
the  scientific  contribution  of  such  agencies  as  the 
University  Seminar  in  educational  research.  With 
the  more  liberal  endowment  of  universities  and 
teachers'  colleges  for  purposes  of  specific  educa- 
tional investigation,  with  the  granting  of  more  nu- 
merous and  more  substantial  working  stipends  to 
educational  scientists  of  good  training,  wide  expe- 
rience and  mature  judgment  who  wish  to  retire  tem- 
porarily from  active  educational  work  to  pursue, 
with  undivided  attention,  investigations  of  real  sig- 
nificance to  educational  method,  with  the  better 
facilities  which  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Educa- 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  19 

tion,  the  State  Departments  of  Education,  the  Car- 
negie Institution,  and  other  educational  foundations 
are  providing  for  the  publication  and  free  distribu- 
tion of  reports  of  scientific  interest  in  the  field  of 
education,  it  is  perhaps  safe  to  predict  that  in  the 
near  future  these  University  Seminars  in  educational 
research  will  be  more  numerous,  that  they  will  be 
composed  of  a  more  selective  membership  than  any 
of  the  more  general  educational  societies,  and  that 
they  will  assemble  for  more  permanent  labors  under 
conditions  more  favorable  to  productive  collabora- 
tion than  any  other  body  of  scientific  workers  now 
engaged  in  the  solution  of  problems  of  scientific  edu- 
cational readjustment. 

It  is  not  here  contended  that  the  educational  in- 
vestigator of  widest  and  most  helpful  experience  in 
educational  work  and  of  most  complete  scientific 
training  will  always  be  most  readily  available  for 
membership  and  participation  in  the  work  of  Univer- 
sity Seminars  for  educational  research,  nor  that  the 
only  important  contributions  will  come  from  these 
groups  of  associated  scientific  workers.  The  condi- 
tions are  likely,  however,  to  become  increasingly  fa- 
vorable to  both  these  results.  Since  the  opportunity 
of  the  University  to  do  constructive  educational 
work  and  to  render  eminently  useful  service  through 
these  agencies  must  be  evident  to  all  who  have 
caught  the  scientific  spirit  in  education,  the  impera- 
tive duty  of  the  University  authorities  to  adopt  a 
policy  and  to  formulate  a  working  program  ought 


20  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

to  be  equally  obvious.  Any  effort  now  to  formulate 
such  a  policy  and  to  construct  such  a  working  pro- 
gram will  be  timely,  and  if  it  should  prove  to  be  only 
suggestive,  it  may,  to  that  extent  at  least,  be  con- 
structive and  helpful.  It  is,  therefore,  attempted. 
The  work  of  a  University  Seminar  in  educational 
research  along  the  line  of  the  specific  application  of 
general  educational  principles  to  classroom  teach- 
ing processes  will,  of  course,  be  a  highly-specialized 
type  of  advanced  graduate  study  and  investigation. 

1.  General  Conditions  of  Membership.  Member- 
ship in  one  of  these  groups  which  aims  "to  see  the 
devious  ways  of  induction"  in  a  very  difficult  field  of 
investigation  and  to  make  a  real  contribution  to  the 
science  of  educational  method  should  presuppose 
and  be  conditioned  on  a  broad  knowledge  of  the  gen- 
eral sciences,  a  thorough  training,  on  the  inductive 
basis,  in  general,  genetic,  and  educational  psychology, 
some  practical  experience  in  teaching  under  ordi- 
nary classroom  conditions,  a  good  general  knowl- 
edge of  the  theories  underlying  statistical  methods, 
together  with  some  practical  experience  in  making 
statistical  interpretations,  and  a  familiar  acquaint- 
ance with  such  approved  scientific  study  in  the  field 
of  inductive  educational  method  as  have  been  pub- 
lished. This  much  training  ought  to  be  considered 
a  minimum  prerequisite  on  the  part  of  any  who  de- 
sire to  participate  intelligently  and  profitably  in 
the  labors  of  the  group,  and  to  contribute  to  its 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  21 

scientific  achievement.  With  less  than  this  the  mem- 
bers of  such  a  group  of  research  workers,  or  asso- 
ciated educational  scientists,  may  not  hope  to  easily 
gain  common  concepts  in  a  scientific  discussion  or  to 
assist  in  that  minute  analysis  which  is  essential  to 
the  isolation  of  factors  in  educational  method.  For 
them,  too,  the  formulation  of  the  procedures  neces- 
sary to  a  scientific  test  or  the  framing  of  valid  con- 
clusions on  the  basis  of  data  collected  must  be  out  of 
the  question. 

2.  Types  of  Specialists  Needed.  It  is  believed 
that  in  something  like  exact  proportion  to  the  de- 
gree in  which  a  seminar  contemplating  research  in 
educational  method  can  be  recruited  from  scientific 
workers  whose  technical  training  has,  at  least  in 
some  one  direction,  gone  beyond  these  minimum  gen- 
eral requirements  may  it  hope  to  push  investigations 
further  than  anything  yet  attempted,  and,  by  refin- 
ing the  analysis  of  the  factors  of  method  and  better 
controlling  the  conditions  of  experimentation,  to 
overthrow  existing  inefficient  practice  or  to  modify 
it  or  to  give  complete  confirmation  to  the  tentative 
conclusions  now  held  as  the  outcome  of  experiments 
made  and  results  published. 

A  good  working  group,  in  whose  discussions  all  may 
freely  participate,  must,  for  obvious  reasons,  be  of 
limited  membership.  The  best  possible  contribution 
which  individual  members  may  make  to  a  scientific 
discussion  will  frequently  take  the  form  of  perti- 


22  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

nent,  timely  and  well-defined  questions  or  suggestive 
comments.  If  the  group  is  too  large  to  assemble  for 
informal  round-table  discussion  the  danger  is  that 
the  interests  of  science  may  have  to  yield  place  to 
the  flow  of  oratory.  In  order  that  the  contributions 
of  each  to  the  work  of  the  group  in  its  formulation 
of  problems  preliminary  to  actual  experimentation 
may  be  technically  pertinent,  highly  analytic,  genu- 
inely scientific,  and  constructively  helpful,  it  would 
seem  well — since  the  group  must  be  limited  in  num- 
bers— to  include  in  the  membership  of  the  seminar, 
whenever  possible,  men  who,  in  addition  to  the  pre- 
requisite general  training  enumerated  above,  rep- 
resent each  in  turn  a  high  degree  of  specialization 
in  one  or  more  of  the  sciences  from  which  we  get 
important  data  of  educational  interest  and  signifi- 
cance. To  illustrate : 

a.  The  psychologist.  The  counsel  of  an  expert 
psychologist  is  indispensable  in  the  analysis  of  fac- 
tors which  contribute  to  sense  perception,  to  tem- 
porary or  relatively  permanent  recall,  and  to  the 
easy  and  certain  formation  of  habits  as  well  as  to 
the  scientific  delimitation  of  a  score  of  other  psy- 
chological factors  which  must  be  taken  into  account 
in  determining  even  tentatively  whether  or  not  in 
the  test  of  a  given  procedure  in  method  we  are  deal- 
ing with  a  psychological  complex.  Then,  in  the 
study  of  data  collected,  preliminary  to  any  attempt 
at  statistical  treatment  and  interpretation,  the  ex- 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  23 

pert  psychologist  may  identify  atypical  students 
whose  failure  to  respond  in  a  normal  way  and  within 
reasonable  limits  of  individual  variation  to  a  given 
group  procedure,  may  not  condemn  the  procedure  as 
a  teaching  process  for  class  use,  but  rather  indicate 
that  these  students  need  special  treatment,  and  that 
the  data  gathered  by  the  testing  of  them  should,  for 
obvious  reasons,  not  be  included  in  statistics  which 
are  to  be  made  the  basis  for  conclusions  on  normal 
classroom  methods.  Then,  too,  the  expert  psycholo- 
gist, by  reason  of  his  extensive  training  in  and  habit- 
ual use  of  the  inductive  method  in  laboratory  work 
in  the  investigation  of  many  forms  of  psychic  reac- 
tion, can  more  readily  than  most  others  decide  from 
internal  evidence  to  be  found  in  papers  submitted 
or  in  data  collected  by  other  means  whether  the  ex- 
perimenter, working  under  the  direction  of  the  semi- 
nar, has  really  maintained  all  the  conditions  of  ex- 
perimentation agreed  upon  in  advance  as  prerequi- 
site to  valid  results. 

b.  The  school  supervisor.  The  counsel  of  an  ex- 
pert and  experienced  school  supervisor  is  indispens- 
able in  determining  the  groups  of  students  or  classes 
or  schools  in  which  a  test  may  be  made  and  the  con- 
ditions under  which  it  may  be  made  with  any  reason- 
able hope  of  scientific  results  at  all  commensurate 
with  the  efforts  expended  upon  it.  Years  of  expe- 
rience and  close  observation  of  the  work  of  many 
teachers  in  all  of  the  school  grades  with  widely- 


24  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

differing  types  of  students  and  under  all  sorts  of 
varying  conditions  have  given  him  a  perspective  in 
the  teaching  processes  and  a  power  of  ready  analy- 
sis of  the  conditions  under  which  and  the  extent  to 
which  an  a  priori  educational  principle  can  be  ap- 
plied not  possessed  by  the  teacher  whose  experience 
has  been  limited  to  classroom  work  and  certainly 
not  possessed  by  those  who  have  not  had  any  prac- 
tical experience  at  all  in  actual  teaching.  Like  the 
trained  psychologist,  he,  too,  can  give  expert  opinion, 
based  on  internal  evidence,  in  papers  scored  or  data 
recorded,  as  to  whether  or  not  varying  factors  have 
been  adequately  guarded  against  in  the  carrying  out 
of  the  procedures  of  experimentation. 

c.  The  sociologist.  The  counsel  of  a  trained 
sociologist,  or  social  psychologist,  may  be  invaluable 
in  locating  characteristic  types  of  students  for  va- 
rious forms  of  experimentation.  He  may  also  point 
out  important  and  characteristic  distinctions  which 
might  introduce  varying  factors  in  a  given  group 
procedure,  due  to  race  or  social  group  differences. 
And,  in  interpretating  data  collected,  his  clear  con- 
cepts of  group  types  may  enable  him  to  formulate 
theories  of  possible  inductions  which  would  not  occur 
to  the  mere  statistician  with  a  mass  of  tabulated  data 
before  him  in  the  form  of  crude  statistics.  And,  as 
is  often  the  case  with  other  lines  of  scientific  inves- 
tigation which  are  dependent  upon  the  possible  legit- 
imate uses  of  statistics,  it  may  happen  that  his 


OF    EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  25 

4 '  guess ' '  as  to  the  correlations  which  exist  will  open 
the  way  to  scientific  discoveries  of  real  importance, 
and  in  this  case  of  wide  significance  to  educational 
method. 

d.  The  statistician.  The  counsel  of  an  expert 
statistician  is  indispensable  at  almost  every  stage  of 
the  proceedings.  His  advice  will  be  definitely  help- 
ful in  formulating  the  tests  and  the  procedures  of 
experimentation  on  such  a  basis  that  the  results  may 
admit  of  statistical  treatment  and  thus  yield  quanti- 
tative as  well  as  qualitative  conclusions.  If  he  has 
participated  in  the  formulation  of  a  test  and  in  the 
working  out  of  a  procedure  for  experimentation  and 
has  been  in  close  touch  with  the  experiment  in  prog- 
ress and  has  followed  with  keen  interest  every  rec- 
ord of  varying  conditions  favorable  or  unfavorable 
to  the  validity  of  results  sought,  he,  of  the  entire 
group  of  scientific  workers,  will  be  most  likely,  by 
reason  of  the  special  character  of  his  training,  to  be 
able  to  work  out  all  the  legitimate  conclusions  war- 
ranted by  the  statistical  data  collected.  Upon  the 
completeness  of  this  rests  the  possibility  of  rapid 
scientific  advancement  by  the  statistical  method  of 
inquiry.  The  perverted  uses  of  statistics  are  pro- 
verbial. Unless  the  scientist  who  makes  interpreta- 
tion of  statistical  data  collected  from  these  tests  has 
participated  in  the  formulation  of  the  problem  to  be 
tried  out,  there  is  danger,  no  matter  how  thorough 
his  technical  training  may  be,  that  he  may  make  sum- 


26  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETEKMHSTATION 

maries  not  fully  warranted  by  the  data  simply  be- 
cause he  does  not  know  the  full  significance  of  these 
data  from  the  standpoint  of  educational  method. 

The  services  of  the  expert  statistician  are  indis- 
pensable for  a  better  reason  than  any  yet  given.  The 
higher  mathematical  calculations  involved  in  the 
working  out  of  correlations,  etc.,  and  in  the  whole 
statistical  treatment  of  data  are  such  as  call  for  the 
labors  of  a  specialist  in  that  line  and  much  would 
be  gained  in  the  development  of  a  science  of  educa- 
tion if  these  studies  in  scientific  educational  method 
could  be  prosecuted  only  by  groups  of  collaborators 
all  of  whose  members  had  had  this  special  technical 
training  in  mathematical  computation. 

These  are  merely  types  of  specialists — the  list  is 
not  exhausted — who  as  members  of  a  seminar  in  edu- 
cational research  may,  in  framing  a  problem  in  edu- 
cational method,  in  deciding  upon  the  procedures  of 
a  test,  and  in  interpreting  the  data  collected,  ren- 
der most  valuable  services  and  sometimes  give  ex- 
pert direction  absolutely  indispensable  to  the  valid- 
ity of  results  sought  in  experimentation. 

Any  amount  of  technical  knowledge,  training,  or 
skill  on  the  part  of  individuals  or  the  group  as  a 
whole  will  not,  however,  serve  the  interests  of  edu- 
cational science  if  there  be  any  disposition  "to  en- 
tertain a  proposition  with  greater  assurance  than 
the  proofs  it  is  built  upon  will  warrant."  It  is 
believed  that  the  educational  seminar  whose  mem- 
bership is  constituted  as  above  suggested  on  a  defi- 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  27 

nitely  selective  basis,  furnishes,  in  the  very  nature  of 
its  organization  and  of  its  methods  of  collaboration, 
the  best  possible  safeguard  against  an  unscientific 
and  biased  attitude  of  mind  on  the  part  of  those 
whose  counsels  will  prevail  in  the  formulation  of 
tests  in  educational  method  and  whose  services  will 
contribute  directly  or  indirectly  to  the  results 
wrought  out  and  the  conclusions  arrived  at  in  the 
course  of  inductive  scientific  inquiry.  Technical 
training  in  the  use  of  the  inductive  method  and  a 
scientific  attitude  of  mind  are  not,  however,  sub- 
stitutes for  each  other.  They  are  complementary, 
and  both  are  alike  indispensable  to  the  validity  of 
scientific  conclusions  sought  in  the  test  of  the  factors 
in  educational  method.  Against  the  bias  of  individ- 
ual viewpoint,  due  to  limited  experience,  partial 
knowledge,  or  personal  prejudice,  collaboration  must 
serve  as  an  effective  and  constant  corrective.  From 
what  has  been  said  up  to  this  point  the  conclusion 
is  easily  drawn  that  in  the  judgment  of  the  writer 
the  seminar  in  educational  research  may  be  made  the 
most  effective  body  of  educational  scientists  to  ad- 
vance the  boundaries  of  our  definite  knowledge  of 
educational  method,  and  that  it  is  justified  on 
grounds  of  expediency,  economy  and  efficiency. 

3.  Meetings  for  round-table  discussion.  In  order 
to  maintain  the  continuity  of  work  while  problems 
are  in  process  of  definition  and  while  procedures  for 
experiments  are  being  formulated,  it  would  doubtless 


28  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

be  well  that  conferences  of  two  or  three  hours  dura- 
tion be  held  at  intervals  of  a  week,  or  not  longer  than 
two  weeks.  While  the  experiments  are  being  made 
it  is  almost  equally  important  that  meetings  or  con- 
ferences be  held  frequently,  so  as  to  note  and  make 
full  record  of  all  varying  conditions  which  may  not 
always  be  controlled,  but  which  must  be  taken  into 
account  as  reinforcing  or  interfering  with  the  valid- 
ity of  results.  While  the  data  gathered  in  an  experi- 
ment are  being  analyzed,  classified  and  worked  up 
for  statistical  interpretation,  and  while  the  formal 
report  on  conclusions  is  being  drafted  by  some  in- 
dividual or  committee  designated  to  do  so,  there  is 
less  need  for  frequent  or  prolonged  conference  un- 
less requested  by  the  person  or  persons  directly  in 
charge  of  this  work.  The  task  will  be  less  onerous 
and  the  final  report  to  the  seminar  will  be  less  likely 
to  need  important  revision  if  stenographic  notes  on 
all  previous  discussions  of  any  and  every  phase  of 
the  investigation  are  available  to  the  member  or 
members  designated  to  draft  the  report  for  publica- 
tion. 

The  discussions  of  the  seminar  in  session  must 
necessarily  be  more  or  less  informal,  but  should  not, 
and  need  not,  lack  definite  direction.  The  specific 
purpose  of  the  discussions  on  any  investigation  pro- 
posed, or  being  made,  may,  perhaps,  best  be  accom- 
plished under  the  leadership  and  direction  of  the 
member  in  active  charge  of  the  problem  or  the  ex- 
perimentation. This  is  sure  to  be  the  case  when  such 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  29 

member  is  an  experienced  investigator.  All  sessions 
may  well  take  on  a  quiet  and  judicial  atmosphere. 
There  must  be  no  dominance  of  personality  to  preju- 
dice a  decision.  Arguments  must  be  freely  set  forth, 
objections  clearly  stated  and  supported,  when  pos- 
sible, by  illustrations  from  personal  experience  or 
reference  to  published  scientific  authorities,  and  all 
contentions  and  objections,  well  supported  and  ju- 
dicially weighed,  should  be  freely  granted. 

4.    Division  of  labor.    As  to  the  division  of  labor, 
there  are  several  courses  open : 

a.  The  group  as  a  whole  may  confine  its  labors  to 
the  investigation  of  a  single  problem,  each  individual 
member  contributing  to  its  delimitation  and  to  the 
formulation  of  the  procedure  of  the  experiment,  and 
personally  devoting  some  time  to  conducting  the 
experiment  with  a  group  of  students  or  in  a  number 
of  schools — thus  enabling  the  seminar,  by  the  col- 
laborative efforts  of  all  of  its  members,  to  utilize 
very  large  numbers  of  students  in  the  experiments. 
This,  of  course,  will  have  a  tendency  to  increase  the 
validity  of  conclusions  reached.    This  method  of  co- 
operation in  the  work  of  experimentation  has  its  ad- 
vantages   and   its    disadvantages,    which   vary,    of 
course,  with  different  types  of  experiments  under- 
taken. 

b.  Each  individual  member  of  the  seminar  may 
report  on  a  different  investigation,  and  each  may, 
after  full  discussion  of  his  special  problem  in  the 
seminar,  conduct  an  experiment  under  the  direction 


30  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

of  the  group,  work  up  the  data,  and  formulate  the 
conclusions. 

c.  The  seminar  may  resolve  itself  into  a  com- 
pany of  expert  advisers  who  meet  periodically  for 
consultation  with  an  investigator  who  devotes  his 
entire  time  under  their  advice  and  direction  to  the 
investigation  of  a  single  problem  in  educational 
method. 

d.  A  combination  of  any  two,  or  of  all  three,  of 
these  methods  of  apportioning  the  tasks  of  pro- 
ductive collaboration  may  be  adopted.     The  expe- 
diency of  adopting  this  plan  or  that  one  will  be  de- 
termined by  the  personnel  of  the  seminar,  by  the 
time  at  the  disposal  of  individual  members,  and  by 
the  accessibility  or  inaccessibility  of  student  groups 
or  schools  available  for,  and  adapted  to,  purposes 
of  experimentation,  as  well  as  by  numerous  other 
considerations  which  cannot  easily  be  anticipated. 

5.  Field  of  investigation.  As  to  the  field  in  which 
experiments  may  be  conducted,  each  seminar  has  a 
wide  range  of  choice : 

a.  It  may  select  some  general  and  more  or  less 
universally  accepted  principle  of  educational  method, 
and,  with  no  foregone  conclusions  as  to  its  scientific 
validity,  try  it  out  in  a  series  of  tests  applied  to  the 
several  school  subjects  and  in  the  several  grades. 
This  work,  if  well  done,  with  a  sufficiently  large  num- 
ber of  students  as  subjects  of  experimentation,  will 
be  likely  to  yield  fairly  conclusive  results  of  a  posi- 
tive or  of  a  negative  character.  If  the  results  are 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  31 

positive,  then  the  distribution  of  results  and  the 
variation  in  different  school  systems,  in  different 
race  or  social  groups,  at  different  school  ages,  etc., 
will  throw  much  light  upon  the  conditions  under 
which  and  the  extent  to  which  these  a  priori  educa- 
tional principles  are  in  practice  applicable.  If  the 
results  are  uniformly  negative,  then  the  way  has 
been  opened  for  the  superseding  of  traditional 
methods  by  others  which  will  eliminate  waste  and 
yield  a  larger  degree,  if  not  a  maximum  degree,  of 
educational  efficiency;  and  whether  the  results  be 
positive  or  negative,  if  they  are  at  all  conclusive 
either  way,  the  reign  of  the  dogmatist  in  the  domain 
of  educational  method  and  in  the  field  covered  by  the 
investigation  will  be  at  an  end. 

b.  The  seminar  may  select  all  so-called  principles 
of  method  from  whatever  source  derived,  which  are 
said  to  have  bearing,  direct  or  more  remote,  on  the 
teaching  of  a  given  school  branch  of  study — say 
spelling — and  formulate  the  problem  of  each  for 
experimentation.  The  practical  results  for  scientific 
educational  method  will  be  virtually  the  same  as 
those  indicated  above. 

For  practical  reasons,  it  is  well  that  the  seminar 
should  limit  definitely,  by  some  well-defined  prin- 
ciple of  choice,  the  field  of  its  investigation.  The  de- 
velopment of  a  science  of  educational  method  on  an 
inductive  basis  will  ultimately  involve  an  approach 
to  the  general  problem  from  many  different  direc- 
tions, and  the  final  co-ordination  of  all  results  into  a 


32  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

scientific  unity.  This  will  represent  the  final  stage 
of  a  process  which  has  been  but  begun.  Until  the 
number  of  educational  seminars  greatly  increases 
and  the  procedures  of  investigation  come  to  be  much 
better  developed,  there  is  little  danger  of  wasteful 
duplication  of  effort.  When  a  little  more  substantial 
achievement  has  been  made  in  this  field,  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Education  or  some  scientific  so- 
ciety, international  in  its  constituency,  should  serve 
as  a  clearing-house  for  the  wide  publication  of  such 
scientific  discoveries  in  educational  method  as  have 
been  made,  and  the  time  may  come  ere  long  when 
some  such  general  agency  as  has  been  referred  to 
may,  with  propriety,  undertake  to  formulate  the 
whole  problem  of  educational  method  and  assign  to 
groups  of  associated  scientific  workers  special  fields 
for  investigation,  to  the  end  that  we  may  ultimately 
have  a  complete  inductively  determined  science  of 
educational  method.  At  the  present  time,  however, 
any  seminar  group  desiring  to  make  an  original  con- 
tribution to  this  end  has  practically  a  clear  field  of 
choice  for  useful  service. 

I 

IV.     THE  WORK  OF  SCIENTIFIC  EXPERIMENTATION  IN 
EDUCATIONAL  METHOD 

When  a  desirable  and  adequate  membership  has 
been  secured,  a  principle  for  the  division  of  labor  has 
been  agreed  upon,  and  a  specific  field  for  investiga- 
tion has  been  selected,  the  group  is  ready  to  f ormu- 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  33 

late  a  problem  in  method  and  to  work  out  in  confer- 
ence a  procedure  for  scientific  experimentation. 
Very  little  has  as  yet  been  done  to  develop  any  gen- 
eral or  specific  formula  for  experimentation  in  the 
field  of  educational  method,  and  there  are  really  no 
good  published  authorities  on  the  subject.  Frag- 
ments of  suggestions  of  the  procedures  adopted  by 
individual  experimenters  are  to  be  found  in  the  pub- 
lished reports  of  experiments  made  in  this  field.  Many 
of  these  will  not  furnish  safe  models  for  future  use, 
since  they  neither  delimit  a  problem  to  a  single  factor 
in  method  nor  adequately  safeguard  the  conditions  for 
uniform  experimentation  with  anything  approximat- 
ing the  complete  elimination  of  varying  or  disturbing 
factors.  Any  one  of  these  studies, — or  all  of  them 
taken  together — is  far  from  completely  suggestive 
of  the  steps  which  must  be  taken  in  working  out,  with 
scientific  exactness,  the  test  of  a  difficult  or  compli- 
cated problem  in  educational  method.  Inasmuch  as 
every  problem  open  to  investigation  is  closely  re- 
lated to  many  others,  and,  since  every  step  in  the 
procedure  of  a  test  is  likely  to  be  closely  dependent 
on  every  other  one  involved  in  the  same  piece  of  ex- 
perimentation, it  may  be  well  that  a  full  view  of  as 
many  of  these  inter-relationships  be  presented  to  the 
mind  at  one  time  as  possible.  An  outline  is,  there- 
fore, suggested  to  indicate  roughly  what  is  in- 
volved in  delimiting  a  problem  for  experimentation, 
in  developing  a  procedure  to  be  followed  in  conduct- 
ing the  test,  in  making  the  specific  application  of 


34  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

this  procedure  to  concrete  classroom  conditions,  and, 
finally,  in  working  up  the  results  for  publication  in 
such  form  as  will  render  the  conclusions  broadly 
significant  to  educational  scientists  and  clearly  in- 
telligible to  all  who  desire  to  improve  their  actual 
teaching  by  bringing  their  practices  into  conformity 
with  well-demonstrated  principles  of  scientific  edu- 
cational method. 

It  is  not  intended  that  this  outline  should  suggest 
the  order  of  importance  of  the  topics  set  down  for  de- 
liberate consideration,  nor  even  the  order  in  which 
they  may  to  best  advantage  be  discussed  and  de- 
termined ;  and  it  is  certainly  not  intended  to  attempt 
to  make  a  complete  enumeration  of  all  the  topics 
which  will  call  for  consideration  in  connection  with 
even  the  simplest  piece  of  experimentation.  The 
bare  outline,  in  its  briefest  form,  without  any  at- 
tempt at  development,  is  here  given,  so  that  it  may 
be  printed  in  the  least  possible  space  for  ready  ref- 
erence. Some  comments  in  the  nature  of  explana- 
tion and  elaboration  will  follow  this. 

V.    OUTLINE 

Of  considerations  and  suggestions  in  connection 
with  any  investigation  undertaken  for  the  inductive 
determination  of  educational  method  and  also  in  con- 
nection with  the  effective  use  of  such  conclusions  as 
may  be  reached  for  the  improvement  of  teaching 
procedures : 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  35 

1.  FOKMULATION  OF  A  PROBLEM  FOR  EXPERIMENTATION. 

a.  Introduction. 

(1)  A  statement  in  very  general  terms  of 
some  controverted  point  or  of  some 
unsolved     problem     in     educational 
method. 

(2)  A  brief  survey  of  experiments  made 
in  the  same  general  field  for  the  scien- 
tific determination  of  the  value  of  fac- 
tors in  educational  method  and  a  sum- 
mary of  results. 

(3)  Differentiation  of  problem  proposed 
from  any  or  all  others  attempted  in 
the   same    general   field — or   a  brief 
statement  of  reasons  for  resubmitting 
a  problem  to  test. 

b.  Specific  statement  of  problem  so  worded  as 
to  clearly  define  the  field  of  the  experiment 
and  isolate  the  factor  to  be  tested. 

2.  SELECTION  OF  LABORATORY  FOR  EXPERIMENTATION. 

a.  Grades  or  groups  of  pupils  selected  and  a 
statement    of   reasons   for   the   particular 
choice. 

b.  Schools  chosen — because  of: 

(1)  Ideal  external  conditions. 

(a)  General  character  of  student 
body. 

(b)  Accessibility  to  experimenter. 

(2)  Co-operation  of  supervisory  officers — 
reasons  for  assuming  this. 


36  THE   INDUCTIVE  DETERMINATION 

c.    Teachers  in  charge  of  grades  or  groups. 
Selected  because: 

(1)  They  are  intelligent  with  reference  to 
controlling  conditions  of  test,  in  co- 
operation with  experimenter   or  in- 
vestigator.   Precautions  taken  to  in- 
sure this. 

(2)  They  have  scientific  attitude  of  mind. 
Eeasons  for  believing  this. 

(3)  They  are  professionally  interested  in 
results  of  test. 

3.      CHOICE  OF  CONDUCTOR  OF  EXPERIMENT. 

a.  A  consideration  of  each  of  the  following 
agents  or  any  combination  of  them  collabo- 
rating as  best  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  the 
experiment  and  most  likely  to  secure  valid 
results. 

(1)  The  investigator — why  or  why  not? 

(2)  The  teacher  in  charge  of  the  grade  or 
group — why  or  why  not? 

(3)  The  principal  in  charge  of  a  build- 
ing— why  or  why  not? 

(4)  The  superintendent  in  charge  of  a 
system — why  or  why  not? 

b.  The  agent  (or  agents)  selected  as  deter- 
mined by: 

(1)  Ideal  desirability. 

(2)  Expediency. 

(3)  Necessity. 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  37 

4.      DEVELOPMENT  OF  A  PROCEDURE  FOR  EXPERIMENT. 

a.    Content — should  include  a  full  considera- 
tion of: 

(1)  Difficulties  encountered  and  plans  for 
overcoming  them.    For  example : 

(a)  Preliminary  tests  to  find  (i) 
the  "unknown,"  (ii)  disturb- 
ing factors,  (iii)  suitable  sub- 
ject-matter,  (iv)   time  limits, 
(v)    suitable  laboratory,   (vi) 
etc.,  etc. 

(b)  Preliminary  conferences  with 
school  officials  and  teachers. 

(2)  Dates  and  days  on  which  instruction, 
drills  or  tests  may  best  be  given. 

(3)  Time  of  day  when  presentations,  drills 
or  tests  may  best  be  given. 

(4)  Subject-matter  to  be  used  as  basis  of 
instruction,  drills  or  tests. 

(5)  Details  of  procedure  proposed  for  ex- 
perimenter or  his  assistants  in  con- 
ducting the  experiment.  For  example : 

(a)  Copies    of   instruction   to   be 
given  to  helpers  with   state- 
ment of  precautions  to  be  ob- 
served. 

(b)  Time  limits  fixed  for  periods 
of  instruction,  drills  or  tests — 
with   precautions    to    be    ob- 
served. 


38  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETEBMINATION 

(c)  Form,  order  and  method  of 
giving  directions  to  group  to 
be  tested.    Precautions  to  be 
observed. 

(d)  Eecord  to  be  made  of  (i)  in- 
terruptions   to    attention    of 
class  or  of  any  considerable 
number  of  students  by  visit- 
ors,   messengers,     storm    or 
rain,  accident,  discipline,  etc.; 
(ii)  weather  conditions  during 
each  successive  period  of  pres- 
entations, drills  or  tests;  (iii) 
temperature     of     laboratory 
(classroom),  (iv)  condition  of 
ventilation,    (v)    missteps    in 
carrying  out  instructions  by 
slight  or  considerable  varia- 
tions in  form  of  a  definitely- 
planned  procedure,  as,  for  in- 
stance, the  inversion  of  order 
or  the  varying  pronunciation 
of  words. 

b.  Form — A  statement  in  full  detail  and  in 
order  of  steps  to  be  taken  in  the  preparation 
and  presentation  of  material  of  test  and  in 
full  conduct  of  experiment. 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  39 

5.  CONDUCTING  OF  EXPERIMENT. 

a.  Under  conditions  agreed  upon  with  such 
slight  modifications  only  as  are  made  neces- 
sary by  exigencies  of  a  given  situation. 

b.  Full,  detailed  and  explicit  record — at  the 
time — of  all  variations  from  authorized  pro- 
cedure,    together    with    any    observations 
which   might    reveal   presence   of   varying 
factors. 

6.  REVIEW  OF  EXPERIMENT  AND  PRELIMINARY  REPORT. 

a.  A  full  statement  by  experimenter  and  assist- 
ants— in  person,  when  possible — to  Seminar 
of  all  information,  whether  recorded  or  not, 
which  has  bearing  direct  or  remote  upon  in- 
terpretation of  results  and  validity  of  same. 

b.  Tentative  outline  of  scheme  for  tabulation 
of  data  with  suggestions  as  to  possible  or 
significant   correlations  to   be  found,  dia- 
grams to  be  made,  and  points  to  be  empha- 
sized in  formal  report  for  publication. 

7.  FORMAL  REPORT  AND  PUBLICATION. 

a.  Preparation  of  report  by  individual  or  com- 
mittee. 

b.  Principles  governing  form  of  report  as  de- 
termined by  the  uses  to  which  it  is  to  be  put. 

(1)  The  abstract. 

(2)  The  summary. 

(3)  The  detailed  report. 


40  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETEKMI NATION 

c.  Review,  criticism  and,  if  need  be,  complete 
or  partial  revision  by  Seminar. 

d.  Dissemination  of  the  several  kinds  of  re- 
ports   by    most    effective    and    economical 
means,  so  as  to  hasten  the  development  of  a 
science  of  educational  method  and  favorably 
affect  current  educational  practice. 

/ 
VI.     DEVELOPMENT  OF  OUTLINE 

The  sub-heading  given  to  the  outline  just  pre- 
sented is  indicative  of  the  uses  to  which  it  is  intended 
it  should  be  put.  A  little  further  development  of 
it  may  make  this  clearer,  and  may  render  it  more 
serviceable  as  a  manual,  by  no  means  complete, 
but  nevertheless  quite  suggestive  and,  therefore,  use- 
ful to  the  members  of  a  seminar  in  educational  re- 
search. No  separate  comment  will  be  made  on  the 
less  significant  subdivisions.  The  separate  sections 
designated  by  a,  b  and  c,  respectively,  will  corre- 
spond to  the  two  or  three  principal  subdivisions  un- 
der each  of  the  seven  main  topics  in  the  outline. 

1.  Formulation  of  a  problem  for  experimenta- 
tion, a.  In  any  meeting  of  educators  where  the 
topics  appointed  for  consideration  are  open  to  free 
discussion  by  men  representing  various  types  of 
training  and  experience  it  frequently  happens  that 
two  successive  speakers  discussing  problems  of  edu- 
cational method  earnestly  contend  for  the  superior- 
ity of  one  procedure  or  practice  over  another  with  a 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  41 

dogmatism  and  in  a  form  of  dialectic  which  would 
have  done  credit  to  the  scholastics  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  discussion  is  usually  futile.  The  literature  of 
methodology  is  largely  made  up  of  the  same  kind 
of  interminable  controversy  over  points  which  have 
never  been  scientifically  determined.  Almost  any 
one  of  these  is  sufficiently  important,  from  the  stand- 
point of  educational  economy,  to  justify  investiga- 
tion. The  more  important  of  these  will,  therefore, 
furnish  problems  which  the  seminar  may  undertake 
to  formulate  and  solve.  And  until  some  scientific 
society  has  formulated  the  general  problem  of  edu- 
cational method  and  isolated  for  separate  tests  the 
numerous  factors  involved,  or  has  gone  this  far 
with  a  group  of  educational  activities  or  interests 
closely  associated,  we  can  have  no  better  starting 
point  in  the  development  of  a  science  of  method  than 
to  undertake,  under  the  most  fovorable  conditions, 
to  settle  one  of  these  fruitless  controversies. 

Before  any  considerable  amount  of  labor  has  been 
expended  upon  such  a  problem,  however,  it  would  be 
well  to  make  a  more  or  less  careful  survey  of  any 
previous  contributions  made  toward  its  solution  and 
scientific  determination.  If  no  study  covering  the 
same  specific  topic  of  inquiry  has  been  published, 
or  made  easily  available,  then  the  field  is  open  for 
such  a  study.  If  previous  experimentation  has  taken 
place  and  the  results  are,  from  any  cause,  not  con- 
clusive or  not  well  worked  out,  or  if  no  adequate 
record  has  been  left  to  indicate  conditions  main- 


42  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

tained  during  experimentation,  or  if  the  test  was  not 
applied  to  a  sufficiently  large  number  of  pupils,  or 
if  for  any  other  good  reason  the  validity  of  conclu- 
sions is  called  into  question,  there  may  be  ample 
justification  for  resubmitting  the  problem  to  test 
under  conditions  which  will  be  likely  to  measurably 
strengthen  the  scientific  value  of  results.  All  this 
preliminary  investigation  and  research  may  be  made 
by  some  individual  member  of  the  seminar  who  has  a 
special  interest  in  the  particular  problem  or  by  an 
individual  or  committee  appointed  by  the  seminar 
to  do  so. 

b.  The  specific,  definite  and  technical  statement 
of  the  problem  should  then  be  undertaken.  This 
statement  must  be  so  worded  as  to  be  absolutely 
clear.  The  certain  isolation  of  a  single  factor  to  be 
tested  will  constitute  one  of  the  most  difficult,  if  not 
the  most  difficult,  of  the  tasks  the  group  of  scientists 
will  have  to  perform.  This  calls,  therefore,  for  the 
best  judgment  of  all,  and  if  the  final  formulation  of 
the  problem  is  the  outcome  of  serious  group  delib- 
eration, the  result,  in  the  course  of  experimentation, 
will  amply  demonstrate  the  superiority  of  seminar 
collaboration  over  individual  effort. 

2.  Selection  of  laboratory  for  experimentation. 
a.  There  are  obvious  reasons  why  certain  kinds  of 
problems  in  scientific  method  may  best  be  submitted 
to  test  in  the  grades  or  groups  where  the  results 
may  be  specifically  applicable  in  the  improvement  of 
classroom  teaching  procedures. 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  43 

b.  Great  caution  must  be  observed  by  the  seminar 
in  the  selection  of  a  school  system  which  is  to  serve 
as  a  laboratory  for  experimentation.    Ideal  external 
conditions  may  not  easily  be  found,  but  their  impor- 
tance to  the  success  of  the  experiment  is  all  but  de- 
terming.    A  student  body  should  and  can  be  found 
which  conforms  closely  to  a  normal  group  type,  in 
age,  in  grade,  in  social  class,  in  mentality,  etc.    The- 
oretically, there  may  be  little  importance  attached 
to  the  location  of  a  school  in  which  experimentation 
is  to  take  place.    Practically,  it  is  a  matter  of  great 
importance  that  a  school  be  chosen,  when  possible, 
which  is  readily  accessible  to  the  conductor  of  the 
experiment.     The  full  and  intelligent  co-operation 
of  the  supervisory  officers  is  a  matter  of  first  impor- 
tance.   It  may  not  be  readily  assumed.    Considera- 
tions, political,  professional  or  personal,  may  render 
it  either  inexpedient  or  impossible  for  a  school  prin- 
cipal or  a  superintendent  in  a  given  case  to  provide 
such  conditions  as  are  necessary  for  successful  ex- 
perimentation. 

c.  It  is  conceivable,  theoretically,  and  it  is  known 
to  be  true  in  practice,  that  in  some  schools  where 
suitable  grades  or  groups  are  available,  where  ex- 
ternal conditions  are  all  that  could  be  desired,  and 
where  complete  and  intelligent  official  co-operation 
on  the  part  of  supervisory  officers  is  assured,  the 
attitude  of  one  or  more  individual  teachers  may 
easily  defeat  the  purpose  of  the  experiment.     A 
school  should,  therefore,  be  chosen  in  which  the 


44  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETEKMINATION 

teachers  who  are  in  charge  of  the  grades  or  groups 
to  be  used  in  an  experiment  are  intelligent  with  ref- 
erence to  controlling  and  keeping  uniform  the  con- 
ditions of  the  test  in  exact  conformity  to  the  wishes 
of  the  experimenter.  This  presupposes  tact  and 
good  judgment,  a  keen  and  alert  intellect,  power  to 
concentrate  quietly  on  almost  infinite  detail,  unfal- 
tering honesty  of  purpose,  unquestioned  frankness 
and  truthfulness,  a  scientific  attitude  of  mind  and  a 
professional  as  distinct  from  a  personal  interest  in 
the  outcome  of  the  experiment.  A  year's  training 
in  such  a  seminar  in  educational  research  as  is  here 
proposed  would  doubtless  give,  in  most  cases,  ample 
assurance  that  the  individual  teacher  who  had  en- 
joyed these  advantages  would  be  both  able  and  will- 
ing to  render  thoughtful  and  intelligent  co-operation. 

3.  Choice  of  conductor  of  experiment,  a.  The 
considerations  enumerated  under  the  first  heading 
in  this  part  of  the  full  outline  call  for  careful  de- 
liberation on  the  part  of  the  seminar.  In  many 
forms  of  experimentation,  conducted  with  thousands 
of  pupils,  in  scores  of  schools,  it  would  seem  that  the 
experimenter  is  perhaps  the  only  person  who  is  in 
position  to  adequately  safeguard  uniformity  of  pro- 
cedure and  of  external  conditions  during  the  course 
of  the  experiment.  In  other  forms  of  experimenta- 
tion the  teacher  in  charge  of  the  grade  or  group  may 
be  the  ideal  person  to  conduct  the  experiment,  and 
this  is  especially  likely  to  be  the  case  when  the  ex- 
periment takes  on  the  procedures  of  the  regular 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  45 

classroom  work.  There  are  still  other  forms  of  ex- 
perimentation in  which  the  principal  or  the  super- 
intendent is  best  suited  to  the  task  of  maintaining 
uniformity;  hut  this  is  very  infrequently  the  case 
for  numerous  reasons  which  are  at  once  obvious; 
and  it  is  usually  a  matter  of  doubtful  propriety  also 
to  add  to  the  onerous  duties  of  either  of  these  offi- 
cials any  extra  burdens  even  when  they  are  willing 
to  render  the  service. 

b.  When  the  seminar  has  fully  canvassed  the 
ideal  desirability  of  this,  that  or  the  other  person, 
in  individual  or  official  relation  to  the  student  groups 
who  are  to  be  the  subjects  of  experimentation,  it 
may  often  be  either  expedient  or  actually  necessary 
to  agree  upon  some  other  agent  to  carry  out  the 
procedure.  In  so  far  as  this  arrangement  is  likely 
to  introduce  varying  conditions,  they  must  be  re- 
corded and  taken  into  account  in  writing  up  the 
report  and  in  framing  the  conclusions  of  the  experi- 
ment. 

4.  Development  of  procedure  for  experiment,  a. 
The  content  of  the  procedure  which  it  will  be  seen 
from  the  outline  covers  many  subdivisions — though 
this  outline  of  them  is  by  no  means  complete  or  ex- 
haustive— will  call  for  more  extended  and  detailed 
discussion  in  the  seminar  group  before  the  actual 
work  of  experimentation  is  undertaken  than  all  other 
points  suggested  for  preliminary  consideration.  A 
select  bibliography  in  educational  psychology  will 
be  definitely  helpful  in  determining  many  of  these 


46  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

details.  Complete  stenographic  notes  on  all  these 
discussions  and  complete  memoranda  of  book  ref- 
erences and  authorities  quoted  will  prove  of  great 
value  in  preparing,  in  full  detail,  any  draft  of  pro- 
cedure agreed  upon,  and  they  may  also  prove  of 
inestimable  value  later  in  writing  up  the  report  for 
publication.  Such  notes  should  be  permanently 
filed — if  not  printed — for  the  ready  reference  of 
subsequent  investigators  of  these  or  closely-allied 
problems  in  educational  method. 

b.  The  person  selected  to  conduct  the  experi- 
ment, that  is,  to  apply  the  procedures  agreed  upon 
to  the  concrete  conditions  of  the  classroom,  whether 
he  be  a  member  of  the  seminar  or  some  other  person 
designated  to  carry  on  the  work,  should,  in  no  case, 
undertake  the  experiment  until  the  seminar  has  ap- 
proved a  full  draft  of  the  procedures  to  be  carried 
out.  And  if  the  slightest  variation  is  made  neces- 
sary by  conditions  beyond  his  control,  that  variation 
should  be  recorded  in  detail  and  reported  to  the 
seminar  for  consideration  in  connection  with  the 
formulation  of  conclusions  for  publication. 

5.  Conducting  of  experiment,  a.  It  frequently 
happens  that,  notwithstanding  the  strict  observance 
of  all  possible  precautions,  unforseen  interruptions 
to  the  progress  of  an  experiment  may  occur.  This 
is  even  more  likely  to  happen  in  experiments  for 
the  scientific  determination  of  educational  method 
than  in  experiments  conducted  in  the  laboratory  of 
physics  or  chemistry  or  physiological  psychology. 


OF    EDUCATIONAL,   METHOD  47 

\Vhen  it  does  happen,  the  experience  and  discretion 
of  the  person  in  charge  of  the  experimentation  will 
enable  him  to  decide  whether  or  not  the  interruption 
is  such  as  to  render  further  progress  with  the  experi- 
ment useless.  If  he  decides  this  in  the  negative,  he 
should  make  full  record  of  the  nature  of  the  dis- 
turbance. If  he  decides  it  in  the  affirmative,  it  is 
almost  equally  important  that  a  report  to  the  semi- 
nar should  be  made  and  recorded  in  sufficient  detail 
to  render  the  experience  useful  as  a  precaution  in 
all  similar  and  subsequent  experimentation. 

b.  In  spite  of  all  preliminary  seminar  discussion 
of  the  prerequisites  of  successful  experimentation, 
the  external  conditions  of  experimentation  in  the 
field  of  educational  method  are  as  yet  so  little  sub- 
ject to  the  control  of  the  educational  scientist  that 
the  getting  of  valid  results  may  be  absolutely  de- 
pendent, not  only  upon  the  care  with  which  he  re- 
cords variations  from  predetermined  procedures, 
but  also  upon  his  making,  at  the  time,  such  other 
observations  as  may  throw  light  upon  individual  or 
group  variation  in  the  character  of  data  gathered 
from  a  given  experiment.  It  is  scarcely  necessary 
to  suggest  also  that  attention  to  these  details  may 
yield  important  by-products  in  the  form  of  closer 
analysis  of  the  factors  in  method  not  yet  completely 
isolated  or  thoroughly  disassociated  from  others  of 
a  similar  nature,  and  will,  therefore,  contribute  more 
or  less  directly  to  the  success  of  all  subsequent  ex- 
perimentation in  educational  method,  and,  finally,  to 


48  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

the  development  of  vital  as  distinct  from  merely 
formal  tests  of  teaching  efficiency. 

6.  Review  of  experiment  and  preliminary  report. 
a.  On  such  points  as  those  discussed  in  paragraphs 
a  and  b  under  the  previous  heading,  the  seminar  in 
full  session  should  be  given  the  completest  possible 
information.  That  is  to  say,  the  actual  conditions  of 
experimentation  as  they  existed  at  the  time  of  and 
throughout  the  whole  period  of  the  experiment 
should  be  reproduced  by  oral  or  by  more  formal  re- 
port in  the  most  concrete  and  vivid  manner  possible. 
This  report  should  be  given  to  the  seminar  before 
any  attempt  is  made  to  formulate  the  conclusions  of 
the  experiment  for  publication.  If  anything  like  a 
general  concensus  of  opinion,  supported  by  the  best 
published  authority,  can  be  arrived  at  by  the  seminar 
as  to  the  probable  bearing  of  each  and  all  of  the 
successive  steps  taken  in  the  course  of  the  experi- 
ment upon  the  result  sought  then  the  conclusions 
ought  to  carry  more  weight  in  the  readjustment  or 
confirmation  of  current  practice  in  educational 
method.  If  no  such  consensus  of  agreement  can  be 
arrived  at  then  any  report  for  publication,  stating 
the  conclusions  justified  by  the  experiment,  can  be 
framed  with  due  caution  as  to  the  purely  tentative 
character  of  these  conclusions.  There  will  then  be 
no  substitution  of  invididual  opinion  for  scientific 
results.  And  again,  let  it  be  remembered  that  it  is 
against  just  this  that  the  seminar  must  sit  in  un- 
yielding protest  if  it  is  to  amply  justify  its  supe- 


OP   EDUCATIONAL    METHOD  49 

riority  over  the  individual  worker  as  an  agency  for 
real,  scientific  achievement  in  the  domain  of  educa- 
tional method. 

If  the  seminar  should  decide,  after  hearing  and 
discussing  this  preliminary  report,  that  the  pro- 
cedures previously  worked  out  for  the  experiment 
were  defective  or  incomplete  or  faulty,  or  that,  from 
any  cause,  no  clear  conclusions  would  be  justified, 
then  the  experimenter  may  be  spared  much  fruitless 
labor  in  preparing  a  formal  report  and  much  expense 
in  publishing  results  which  might  prove  to  be  not 
only  inconclusive,  but  completely  misleading.  There 
are  circumstances,  however,  in  which  the  seminar 
might  be  amply  justified  in  undertaking  to  formulate 
a  clear-cut  report  on  a  piece  of  experimentation 
which,  from  one  cause  or  another,  could  not  be  car- 
ried to  successful  issue.  This  may  result,  if  well 
done,  in  closing  up  some  of  the  blind  alleys  of  edu- 
cational research,  and,  in  a  more  constructive  way, 
it  may  be  helpful  and  suggestive  in  improving  the 
procedures  for  and  the  control  of  the  external  con- 
ditions of  subsequent  experimentation. 

b.  While  the  procedures  of  a  test  are  being 
worked  out  and  during  the  progress  of  experimenta- 
tion many  suggestions  will  come  to  those  who  are 
actively  participating  in  the  work  as  to  the  pos- 
sible bases  of  classification  of  data  for  tabulation 
and  graphic  representation;  and  even  a  cursory 
survey  of  the  data — in  their  crudest  form — will  sug- 
gest to  the  person  who  has  made  the  preliminary 


50  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

scores  an  idea  of  possible  or  at  least  of  significant 
correlations  to  be  worked  out.  These  may  or  may  not 
be  in  line  with  what  the  seminar  has  had  in  mind 
in  the  first  case  as  to  the  method,  and  in  the  second 
case  as  to  the  object  of  the  study.  A  full  discussion 
of  these  points  in  seminar,  on  the  basis  of  an  out- 
line prepared  and  recommendations  made  by  the 
member  or  members  most  familiar  with  the  progress 
of  the  experiment  up  to  this  point,  will  bring  the 
technical  knowledge  of  each  type  of  expert  in  the 
group  to  bear  directly,  and  in  the  most  effective  way, 
upon  the  very  difficult  and  laborious  task  of  working 
up  results  for  publication.  Such  points  of  discussion 
will  likely  help  the  person  or  persons  designated  to 
prepare  the  formal  report  and  draft  the  final  conclu- 
sions to  keep  the  main  purpose  of  the  study  and  its 
direct  contribution  to  scientific  method  in  the  proper 
perspective,  and  to  give  to  the  by-products  of  the 
study — unless  they  be  of  absorbing  interest  and  sig- 
nificance— a  place  well  in  the  background. 

7.  Formal  report  and  publication,  a.  It  is  be- 
lieved that  in  the  case  of  the  simpler  investigations, 
and  such  as  do  not  require  extensive  or  technical 
mathematical  calculations,  the  report  may  well  be 
prepared  by  the  individual  member  who  has  con- 
ducted, or  been  directly  in  charge  of,  the  experiment. 
In  all  other  cases  the  preparation  of  the  report  had 
better  be  undertaken  as  a  work  of  collaboration, 
both  for  the  sake  of  economy  of  time  and  efficiency 
of  service.  The  members  of  such  a  committee 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  51 

should  be  chosen  because  of  their  special  individual 
preparation  for  each  special  assignment  of  work, 
and  their  technical  skill  and  experience  in  rendering 
such  service.  For  instance,  the  member  who  can  de- 
srril>o  with  nicety  of  diction,  with  brevity,  and  with 
absolute  clearness  as  to  all  the  scientific  distinctions 
which  are  called  for  the  details  of  procedure  may 
best  undertake  this  task,  and  in  doing  so  may  make 
an  invaluable  contribution  to  scientific  accuracy. 
The  more  difficult  mathematical  computations  and 
correlations  may,  for  obvious  reasons,  best  be 
worked  out  by  the  expert  statistician  if  there  be  one 
in  the  group ;  and  inasmuch  as  this  is  a  purely  tech- 
nical piece  of  work,  the  group  or  committee  may  do 
well  to  call  in  the  services  of  such  an  expert  in  case 
no  member  of  the  seminar  has  adequate  training  or 
the  time  at  his  disposal  to  work  out  the  results. 

b.  The  form  of  the  report  may  well  be  consid- 
ered both  for  the  sake  of  economy  in  printing  and 
because  the  good  uses  which  any  scientific  publica- 
tion may  subserve  depend  in  some  cases  upon  its 
brevity,  in  others  upon  such  an  orderly  or  conven- 
tional arrangement  as  will  render  it  most  effective 
for  ready  reference,  and  in  still  others  upon  the 
complete  elaboration  of  all  details  of  scientific  in- 
terest or  significance.  The  abstract,  the  summary 
and  the  full  detailed  report  will,  each  in  turn,  serve 
a  special  use  which  neither  of  the  others  can  serve. 
If  all  of  these  forms  of  report  are  included  in  a  mono- 
graph on  a  single  piece  of  experimentation,  they 


52  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETERMINATION 

should  be  arranged  in  the  order  named.  They  will 
probably  be  prepared  in  the  reverse  order.  Whether 
they  are  published  separately,  or,  as  above  sug- 
gested, they  will  serve  very  different  purposes  for 
different  classes  of  readers,  respectively,  or  even 
for  the  same  readers. 

(1)  The  abstract,  which  is  the  briefest  form  of 
report,  may,  when  it  is  to  be  used  in  the  public  press 
or  given  to  teachers  for  the  modification  and  im- 
provement of  method,  be  written  up  in  terms  of  valid 
scientific  conclusions;  if  for  use  in  the  general  or 
more  popular  educational  papers  or  for  book  re- 
views, or  for  any  of  the  purposes  of  propaganda,  it 
should  give  in  the  broadest  outline  a  statement  of 
the  controverted  point  tried  out  by  the  processes  of 
experimentation,  of  the  procedures  and  conditions 
of  the  test,  and  of  such  conclusions  as  suggest  the 
possibility  of,  and  the  means  for,  the  improvement 
of  current  educational  practices.    The  greatest  cau- 
tion should  always  be  observed  in  writing  up  ab- 
stracts lest  general  statements,  with  little  or  no 
qualification,  should  be  grossly  misleading. 

(2)  The  summary  should  be  in  the  form  of  a 
work  of  ready  reference,  whether  it  is  published 
under  the  same  cover  with  the  other  forms  of  report 
or  whether  it  is  published  separately.    As  an  ampli- 
fication of  the  abstract,  it  should  add  to  its  clearness, 
and  as  a  synopsis  of  the  complete  report,  it  should 
eliminate  mere  detail.    If  it  be  written  for  a  specific 
use,  it  may  place  special  emphasis  upon  this,  that 


OF   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD  53 

or  the  other  feature  as  the  purpose  for  which  it  is 
prepared  may  determine.  For  instance,  as  an  article 
in  an  educational  journal  for  a  select  class  of  more 
or  less  scientific  educational  thinkers,  it  might  be  so 
written  as  to  emphasize  the  scientific  aspect  of  the 
procedures  of  experimentation  and  of  the  condi- 
tions of  test  rather  than  other  more  general  and 
more  popular  features.  As  a  work  of  general  ref- 
erence for  such  readers  as  are  likely  to  develop 
through  it  a  special  interest  in  the  study  of  the  com- 
plete detailed  report  or  a  more  genuine  interest  in 
scientific  educational  experimentation,  it  should  be 
well  proportioned  in  its  emphasis,  and  should  cor- 
respond in  sections,  chapters,  and  subdivisions  to  the 
general  report  upon  which  it  is  based.  Here  great 
care  must  be  taken  to  properly  qualify  all  general 
statements,  especially  such  as  pertain  to  conclusions 
likely  to  affect  current  educational  practice. 

(3)  The  detailed  report  should  give,  in  the  most 
orderly  form  for  clear  comprehension,  every  fact  or 
detail  in  connection  with  the  whole  experiment  which 
has  direct  or  remote  scientific  bearing  upon  the 
validity  of  conclusions  proposed  or  upon  the  future 
development  of  formulas  and  procedures,  and  the 
control  of  external  conditions  for  the  scientific  deter- 
mination of  educational  method.  It  should  include, 
therefore,  in  the  case  of  any  given  experiment,  all 
such  details  as  are  suggested  in  the  general  outline 
proposed  on  page  34  and  many  others  directly  ap- 
pertaining to  the  particular  experiment  covered  by 


54  THE   INDUCTIVE   DETEBMINATION 

the  report.  Each  study  will,  in  many  respects,  pre 
sent  a  case  sui  generis  and  no  general  outline  of  the 
order  of  treatment  or  of  the  details  to  be  included 
could  possibly  apply,  except  in  the  most  general  way, 
to  reports  of  the  several  kinds  of  investigations  con- 
templated. No  such  outline  is,  therefore,  attempted. 
In  many  cases  the  full  publication  of  all  this  mate- 
rial would  involve  great  expense  which  need  not, 
and  perhaps  ought  not,  to  be  incurred.  The  full  de- 
tailed report,  however,  should  be  made  available,  if 
only  in  manuscript  form,  to  all  well-accredited  stu- 
dents of  scientific  educational  method  who  wish  to 
consult  the  files  and  records  of  the  seminar.  It 
might  be  well  also  to  keep  on  file  all  original  data, 
including  original  papers  collected  from  students, 
stenographic  reports  of  seminar  discussions,  notes 
on  the  conditions  existing  during  the  course  of  ex- 
perimentation, etc.  This  material  will  have  inter- 
est for  a  very  few  only,  but  for  such  it  may  prove  in- 
valuable, and  it  may  obviate  the  necessity  of  much 
duplication  of  labor  as  well  as  save  expense  in  time 
and  money  when  similar  investigations  are  in 
progress. 

c.  It  is  needless  to  suggest  that  if  any  one  of 
these  three  forms  of  report  is  to  represent  the  most 
scientific  achievement  which  the  seminar  as  a  whole 
is  capable  of  and  is  to  serve  the  highest  purposes  of 
science,  it  should,  after  the  formal  draft  has  been 
prepared  by  the  individual  or  committee  appointed 
to  do  so,  be  carefully  read  and  studied  by  each  mem- 
ber of  the  group  separately  and  then  discussed 


OF    EDUCATIONAL    MI'/ITIOD  55 

nun  in  in  a  round-table  conference,  and,  if  need  be, 
iv vised  or  in  part  rewritten  before  going  to  the  files 
or  before  going  to  the  press  to  receive  the  imprint 
of  the  seminar. 

d.  A  few  suggestions  may  be  in  order  as  to  the 
moans  by  which  the  results  of  scientific  inquiry  into 
educational  method  may,  with  the  least  possible  ex- 
pense, be  made  most  effective  for  the  immediate  im- 
provement of  educational  practice  and  for  the 
growth  among  educational  thinkers  of  a  genuine  and 
sympathetic  interest  in  the  rapid  development  of  a 
full-grown  science  of  educational  method. 

Educational  papers  and  the  daily  press,  by  the 
free  publication  of  authorized  abstracts — not  gar- 
bled or  distorted  or  twisted  for  sensational  pur- 
poses— might  do  much  to  popularize  the  efficiency 
test  as  applied  to  educational  method.  The  United 
States  Bureau  of  Education  might  wisely  use  its 
frank  for  the  general  distribution  of  such  approved 
abstracts  among  weekly  newspapers — especially  in 
rural  communities — just  as  the  present  Commis- 
sioner is  now  doing  in  the  dissemination  of  other  in- 
formation of  great  interest  and  importance  to  the 
general  public. 

County  and  city  superintendents  of  schools  might 
interest  the  more  thoughtful  teachers  directly  by 
occasionally  incorporating  a  summary  of  one  of  the 
most  important  of  these  studies  in  annual  reports 
and  in  recommendations  to  teaching  groups  under 
their  immediate  official  supervision.  The  United 
States  Bureau  of  Education  might,  by  means  of  brief 


56  THE    INDUCT! V'E' • 'DETERMINATION 

special  bulletins,  bring  summaries  of  the  best  of 
these  studies  to  the  special  notice  of  officers  of  all 
voluntary  educational  associations  and  legally  or- 
ganized teachers'  institutes  and  thus  open  the  way 
for  their  discussion  at  many  faculty  meetings,  gen- 
eral educational  conferences  and  widely  influential 
public  educational  gatherings.  Colleges  and  uni- 
versities might  use  their  special  mailing  privileges 
for  the  wide  distribution  of  summaries  among  large 
groups  of  interested  educational  workers. 

When  the  publication  of  a  full  detailed  report  on 
a  given  study  seems  to  be  merited,  either  by  the  supe- 
riority of  the  report  itself  as  an  embodiment  of  the 
best  developed  principles  and  formulas  for  scientific 
inquiry  into  educational  method,  or  by  the  conclu- 
sive nature  of  the  results  of  the  study  for  scientific 
uses,  the  expense  of  such  publication  should  be  borne 
by  some  one  of  the  great  educational  foundations, 
or  by  the  Federal  Bureau  of  Education,  or  by  some 
one  of  the  national  educational  associations  or  scien- 
tific educational  societies.  These  publications  should 
then  be  made  accessible  in  all  university  and  college 
libraries  where  scientific  studies  of  educational 
method  are  being  made. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

A  well  classified  list  of  studies  made  in  this  and 
closely  allied  fields  of  educational  inquiry  has  been 
prepared  by  Dr.  I.  L.  Kandel  and  may  be  found  in 
Bulletin  No.  13,  1913,  issued  by  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Education,  Washington,  D.  C. 


57 


UNIVEESITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 


I 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

Books  not  returned  on  time  are  subject  to  a  fine  of 
50c  per  volume  after  the  third  day  overdue,  increasing 
to  $1.00  per  volume  after  the  sixth  day.  Books  not  in 
demand  may  be  renewed  if  application  is  made  before 
expiration  of  loan  period. 


REC'D  LD 

JUL8   19b?. 


MAR  21  1985 


USE 

JUL8    19B7 


50m-7,'16 


GENERAL  LIBRARY  -  U.C.  BERKELEY  i876 


BDOD7fllS3S 


310402 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


